Science & TechnologyS


Telescope

Mystery Behind Gigantic Space Blob Revealed

The mystery behind the power source of the giant "Lyman-alpha blob," one of the largest single objects known in the universe, has finally been revealed by astronomers at the European Southern Observatory. Observations from ESO's Very Large Telescope have led to the conclusion that rare vast cloud of glowing gas from the earliest days of the universe must be powered by galaxies embedded within it. The results appear in the Aug. 18 issue of the journal Nature.

This animation of a Lyman-alpha blob begins with a close-up view of a supermassive black hole in the center of a galaxy. Material falls into the black hole via a hot, rotating disk, and powers an outflow that pushes out into the galaxy:


Lyman-alpha blobs are huge gaseous structures emitting Lyman-alpha frequency light. Some of these are more than 400,000 light years across in size. The ESO team found that the light coming from one of these blobs is polarized. This is the first time that polarization has ever been found in a Lyman-alpha blob, and this observation will help unlock the mystery of how the blobs shine.

"We have shown for the first time that the glow of this enigmatic object is scattered light from brilliant galaxies hidden within, rather than the gas throughout the cloud itself shining." explains Matthew Hayes of the University of Toulouse in France, lead author of the paper.

Magnify

Unusual form of carbon seen in space

Graphene graphic
© IAC/NASA/NOAO/ESA/STScI/NRAO An artist's concept of graphene and other forms of carbon superimposed on an image of the Helix planetary nebula, a puffed-out cloud of material expelled by a dying star
NASA says its Spitzer Space Telescope has spotted the signature of a form of carbon called graphene in space, the first-ever cosmic detection of the material.

Graphene, which is arranged like chicken wire in flat sheets that are one atom thick, was first synthesized in a lab in 2004, and a Nobel prize was awarded for subsequent research on its unique properties.

Graphene is as strong as it is thin, conducts electricity as well as copper and is considered by many the "material of the future" with applications in computers, electrical devices, solar panels and more, a NASA release said Tuesday.

Bug

Best of the Web: Mind-Control Parasite Makes Fear Sexy

Cat and Mouse
© Live Science
When the bizarre parasite Toxoplasma gondii infects rats, it turns the rodents fearless, reducing their natural aversion to the odor of cat urine. But despite this bravery, infected rats remain terrified of other scary stimuli.

Now, a new study hints at how T. gondii, or "toxo," makes this strangely specific fearlessness happen: In infected rats, the smell of cat urine activates sexual attraction pathways in the brain, spurring the animals to approach the odor rather than run away.

Although T. gondii can infect many mammals, including humans, this rodent mind control is likely an adaption by the parasite to ensure it gets into the intestines of a cat, the only place it can reproduce sexually.

"Something is perturbing these pathways, and it looks like that something is toxo," said study researcher Patrick House, a neuroscientist at Stanford University.

Comment: From wikipedia:

The U.S. NHANES (1999--2004) national probability sample found that 10.8% of U.S. persons 6--49 years of age, and 11.0% of women 15--44 years of age, had /Toxoplasma/-specific IgG antibodies, indicating that they were infected with the organism.

It is estimated that between 30% and 65% of all people worldwide are infected with toxoplasmosis. However, there is large variation between countries: in France, for example, around 88% of the population are carriers, probably due to a high consumption of raw and lightly cooked meat. Germany, the Netherlands and Brazil also have high prevalences of around 68%, over 80% and 67% respectively.

In Britain about 22% are carriers, and South Korea's rate is 4.3%.

See also:

The Return of the Puppet Masters

Research supports toxoplasmosis link to schizophrenia

Toxoplasmosis infection trick revealed by scientists

Toxoplasmosis found more severe in Brazil compared to Europe
Toxoplasmosis Parasite May Trigger Schizophrenia And Bipolar Disorders

A curious clue? Women infected with toxoplasmosis are more likely to have boys

Toxo: A Conversation with Robert Sapolsky about Toxoplasmosis


Info

Russia Announces Space Hotel For 2016

Space Hotel
© redOrbit

A Russian company has announced plans to build a hotel in space in 2016.

According to the plans, the hotel would orbit 217 miles above ground and will have room for seven guests in four cabins, each with views of the Earth below.

The Commercial Space Station will reportedly be more comfortable than the International Space Station (ISS).

The tourists will arrive at the hotel by riding aboard a Soyuz rocket and stay for two days.

The guests will eat food prepared on Earth that can be reheated in a microwave, according to a report by the Daily Mail.

Astronauts from the ISS could also use the hotel as an emergency get away.

A five-day stay at the hotel will cost about $1,000,000 after adding the cost for transportation as well.

Sergei Kostenko, head of Orbital Technologies, the company building the hotel, said: "The hotel will be aimed at wealthy individuals and people working for private companies who want to do research in space."

Info

Bid to Rename Homo Sapiens Is Called Unwise

Homo Sapiens
© Dannyphoto80 | DreamstimeHumans received the species name, Homo sapiens, meaning "wise man," in 1758. But given our short-sighted behavior, that name needs to be changed, one writer proposes.

For about 250 years, our species has been known as Homo sapiens, a scientific name in Latin that means "wise man."

Given the havoc humans are wreaking on natural systems, putting ourselves and so many other living things in peril, we don't deserve this name, contends Julian Cribb, an Australian science writer and book author. In a letter published in the Aug. 18 issue of the journal Nature, Cribb makes a proposal.

"Changing our species name might risk infringing some of the hallowed rules of nomenclature, but it would send an important signal about our present collective behavior," he writes.

Cribb has no suggestion for a new name, "because I want humanity at large to discuss this issue - not just scientists," he said in an email to LiveScience.com.

Meanwhile, some scientists have a name for Cribb's suggestion. They call it silly.

"It's not a matter of changing names, it is a matter of changing actions," said Ken Caldeira, a climate scientist with the Carnegie Institution of Washington.

Info

Is Evolution Predictable?

Nematodes
© Manuel ZimmerNematode
If one could rewind the history of life, would the same species appear with the same sets of traits? Many biologists have argued that evolution depends on too many chance events to be repeatable. But a new study investigating evolution in three groups of microscopic worms, including the strain that survived the 2003 Columbia space shuttle crash, indicates otherwise. When raised in a lab under crowded conditions, all three underwent the same shift in their development by losing basically the same gene. The work suggests that, to some degree, evolution is predictable.

More than 50 years ago, researchers studying basic cell biology began raising a tiny soil worm, the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. A young worm takes one of two life paths: Either it matures in 3 days, reproduces, and dies within 2 weeks, or it goes into a state of suspended animation, remaining what's called a dauer larva. Dauer larvae don't eat, and they can survive stressful environmental conditions for months before turning into adults. Typically, too little food, the wrong temperature, or crowded conditions prompt young worms to become dauer larvae.

The animals know their numbers are too high because they can sense odor chemicals called pheromones emitted by their peers. When there's too much pheromone, they choose the dauer route.

Grey Alien

SETI Project Back On Track

The SETI (the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute says it has received over $200,000 in donations from thousands of people around the world, and now hopes to resume observations in mid-September.

The Allen Telescope Array (ATA), which detects electromagnetic transmission from outer space, went offline in April this year following SETI'S funding announcement. The United States government contributed to early SETI projects, but recent work has been primarily funded by private sources.


Bizarro Earth

Drifting Antarctic Dunes Sign of Changing Climate

Antarctica
© NASASatellite image of Antarctica's Dry Valleys.
The greatest desert on Earth is not blazing hot but freezing cold: the icy wastes of Antarctica.

Now scientists find the speed at which sand dunes drift across the ground of this frigid desert has tripled in the past 40 years - a finding that could shed light on everything from the planet's warming climate to deserts on Mars.

Antarctica is not just the coldest of Earth's continents, but the driest and windiest. The scant areas that are free of snow and ice make up less than 0.4 percent of the continental land mass. In places there, the wind has built sand dunes.

The most extensive dune field is found in Victoria Valley, one of the McMurdo Dry Valleys, and it holds Antarctica's largest dune, 230 feet (70 meters) high and more than 650 feet (200 m) wide.

Telescope

Mystery of giant arrow-shaped cloud on Titan solved as scientists claim it is massive atmospheric weather wave

The baffling mystery of a vast arrow-shaped cloud on Titan looks to have been solved after scientists attributed the phenomenon to giant atmospheric weather waves.

The 'arrow' is bigger than the U.S state of Texas - around 930 miles long - and was was detected on the Saturn moon by Nasa's Cassini spacecraft in September 2010.

The discovery of its origins on Titan, described by researchers as Earth's 'strange sibling', could now be used to better understand weather systems on our own planet, particularly in relation to climate change.

Image
© NASA/JPL/SSIMethane rain: The huge white arrow-shaped cloud on the left of this image of Titan is thought to be caused by atmospheric pressure surges, say scientists

Info

Brain Changes in Stutterers Involve More Than Speech

Stutter
© Bedlam ProductionsKing George VI suffered throughout life with a stuttering condition, which researchers are finding involves a brain rewiring that affects more than speech. This image is from The King's Speech, a movie about the king.

The brains of people who have stuttered since childhood show evidence of rewiring, with the right side taking on tasks generally handled by the left. A new study, in which participants tapped their fingers in time with sounds, shows that this rewiring extends beyond speech.

Research so far indicates that stutterers have problems linking what they hear with what they say, according to Martin Sommer, a study researcher with the Institute of Clinical Neuroscience and Medical Psychology at Heinrich Heine University in Germany. He compared stuttering speech to music from a disorganized orchestra.

"The question is not single elements themselves, not the instruments. They all know their parts. The question is how to activate them in a coordinated and well-timed fashion," Sommer said.

The musicians know when it's time to begin playing their instruments based on what they hear around them. So they fine-tune their actions in response to sound. Likewise, the part of the brain that controls the movement that creates speech must fine-tune its instructions based on what the person hears, including his or her own voice.